Motivation

I have several computers at home and in the office, running operating systems including Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Introduction

There are many remote desktop software on the market, such as Teamviewer, Chrome Remote Desktop, ToDesk, RustDesk, etc. I used Teamviewer before, but the free version of Teamviewer has a time limit. I used it for a while and then I don’t know why my free use qualification was canceled, so I started using AnyDesk.

AnyDesk is a cross-platform remote desktop software that supports Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android systems. The features of AnyDesk include:

• Free for personal use, paid for commercial use.
• Support for multiple operating systems.
• Fast connection speed and clear picture quality.

Installation

Windows and macOS

Download the installation package for the corresponding system from the AnyDesk official website, and then install it.

Linux

AnyDesk provides .deb and .rpm installation packages for Linux systems, you can download the corresponding installation package from the AnyDesk official website, Debian/Ubuntu systems use .deb package:

```bash
sudo dpkg -i anydesk_x.x.x-x_amd64.deb
```

RedHat/Fedora/OpenSUSE systems use .rpm package:

```bash
sudo rpm -i anydesk-x.x.x-x.x86_64.rpm
```

Android

Anydesk also has an Android mobile version, which can be downloaded and installed from Google Play.

This is also a great advantage of Anydesk, because many other remote desktop software do not have an Android version. With the Android version, you can use your phone to do some simple control of the remote computer (complex operations are still too cramped on the phone), which is still very useful in some special cases.

Configuration and Usage

Basic usage is very simple, so I won’t go into details here. Some useful features include:

• If you are using AnyDesk on macOS, you can enable screen sharing permissions in system settings.
• If you want to remotely control the computer without anyone present, you need to enable the Unattended Access feature. The Unattended Access feature requires setting a password, and then entering the address and password of the remote computer to connect.
• In the User Interface setting, you can set an alias for your computer, so you don’t have to remember the long string of numbers of the computer address when connecting.

Troubleshooting

1. When using AnyDesk on a Linux system, I encountered an error: The session has ended. Status: display_server_not_supported.

   

   This problem is because AnyDesk does not support the Wayland display server, only the X11 display server. The solution is to select the X11 display server at the login screen, and then log in.

2. Another error occurs when trying to connect to Anydesk remotely after a system restart: The session has ended. Status: desk_rt_ipc_error.

   

   This is because AnyDesk cannot work properly after a restart without logging into the system. The solution is to log into the system after a system restart, and then connect to AnyDesk. But if you are not next to the remote computer and cannot log into the system, you can set up automatic login, so that AnyDesk can work properly after a restart.

   1	/etc/gdm3/custom.conf enable automatic login

   Or you can also edit the /etc/gdm3/custom.conf file and add the following content:

   1 2 3 4 5

   [daemon] AutomaticLoginEnable=True AutomaticLogin=username WaylandEnable=false

   Where username is your username.

   WaylandEnable=false is to disable Wayland, which is not supported by AnyDesk.